


Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, M/M, Movie: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Past Poe Dameron/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Warnings May Change, category may change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 18:10:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18451886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: One year after the Battle of Crait, the Resistance and the First Order battle to determine the fate of the galaxy.





	Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: Well, now that we have a trailer out, I figured I’d start speculating. Here’s to me finishing what I start this time around.

The interior of the new Supreme Leader’s ship was a dark, shadowy place, especially his bedchambers. Unlike the late, previous Supreme Leader, Snoke, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren preferred darkness and shadow, and the darker colors. He had never truly been able to shed his previous clothing, the black tunic and pants, for something more extravagant. Extravagance was a waste of time, though. Extravagance was nothing but a gratuitous display that was only supposed to please you, and you alone. 

Kylo Ren was many things, but extravagant he was not. 

Besides, he doubted that he wanted any ties to Snoke, any reminders of him whatsoever. It was better off that way. 

Right now, in that moment, he was sitting in a cross-legged position, a replacement for the fire of slashing things that he had used in the past. It wasn’t because it had been wrong, per se — it was because he needed to conserve that anger, he needed to draw upon it. 

And he had reserves of it. 

He could remember. Snoke had forced him to acknowledge every bit of pain and anger inside him, and as terrified as he had been at first, in that terror was a freedom that he doubted that he had ever felt. 

He had drawn on it. And it had been liberating. The same anger had been liberating when he had finally given into it at Crait. Every mistreatment, every loss, every betrayal. It should have been liberating now. 

Instead, he couldn’t help but think of someone else, struggling to the surface of his thoughts like a swimmer making their way to the surface after time spent too long in the ocean. And that was Poe. 

He hadn’t thought of Poe when his and the scavenger’s minds had linked — all thanks to Snoke, of course, connecting their minds without their consent. Another thing to hate him for. But he hadn’t had time to think of Poe. 

Now that it was a year later, and he was thirty instead of twenty-nine, he couldn’t help but think of Poe. Of the way he smiled, the way that he laughed. He should have been able to think of a particularly heinous instance of one of his own abandoning him, humiliating him, anything of that sort, and yet his thoughts went back to Poe. 

Poe, who he had broken, effectively. With the scavenger, he had felt a strange kinship with her, but no more than that. She saw an image of Ben Solo and chased it — a dead image that no longer existed. 

(Or did it?)

But Poe...

Long ago, he had loved Poe with all his heart. 

Something in him, maybe a part of him that was still Ben Solo, still did. 

There was a knock on the door. A very subtle knock, but enough to jolt Kylo out of his reverie. “Why have you disturbed me?” he said. He was getting used to — slightly — not having the mask, but he had to admit that his usual speaking voice, soft and deep, was not really intimidating without the mask. 

“Supreme Leader,” and Kylo was already relieved that it wasn’t Hux — he doubted that he wanted to deal with the now-Admiral’s slimy presence — but his apprentice, Mara. She was still in training, hadn’t really earned her Knight of Ren name yet...but she would, soon enough. “I wanted to speak to you about the status of the project.”

Kylo rose, headed over towards the door and opened it, revealing Mara. She wasn’t as tall as Kylo, but she was striking, with classically beautiful features and auburn hair. She hadn’t even made her Knight of Ren mask, not quite yet. 

“How goes it?” Kylo said. They weren’t replicating Starkiller Base. Kylo knew that much. Even the concept of Starkiller Base had been repulsive, though Snoke was so intent on crushing the Resistance and Skywalker both that he had approved it when Hux suggested it. 

Instead, they were taking a far more...hands-on approach. 

"It’s in development. And going well,” Mara said. “Training the assassins is going quite well. They’re learning things quickly.”

”Excellent,” Kylo said. “And your own training?”

”It’s progressing quite well,” Mara said. 

“Good. There was actually something I wanted to show you.”

Mara paused. She was curious, that was good. 

“Sit with me,” Kylo said. “Close your eyes.”

Mara did so. 

“Now, concentrate,” Kylo said. “Think of something in your past that...hurts. That makes you angry.”

He had a feeling as to what it was going to be. The matter of Mara’s own planet, her own home, and how the Republic (before Hux destroyed it) had effectively done nothing to help. It was all ragged cloth and bony frames, all of it, and Mara had been shaped in those circumstances, almost like clay. 

“What about you, my Lord?”

”Forget me,” Kylo said. “Think about you. Immerse yourself in that memory, in that pain and anger. Do not let up...”


End file.
